Tag Archives: technology

Technology has transformed many things.  Most things. I remember one of my amazing professors at the Harvard Ed School, the venerable Chris Dede, asking us to imagine walking into a number of different spaces.  Picture a movie theater.  A bank.  An airport.  A living room.  Can you tell whether you are in the past or present?  Probably.  Now, picture walking into a typical classroom.  If it weren’t for the clothes and hairstyles, in many cases you wouldn’t be able to…

According to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the typical American child — age 8 to 18 — spends no less than seven and a half hours a day engaged with media. According to research from Sesame Workshop and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, younger children are also consuming media heavily — about 4 hours a day for the typical five year old. Television, cell phones, computers, etc. are not just part of these children’s lives — in a very…

This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post.   On Tuesday, June 7, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop will present a report at the E 3 Expo in Los Angeles that may surprise media designers and cause policymakers to step back from their current concerns about kids’ digital multitasking addiction, cyber-bullying, violent videogames, and mobile disruptions in school. While much of the public discussion about digital media is concentrated on how little influence parents have in shaping…

It may come as no surprise that kids want gadgets over toys this holiday season. According to the Duracell Toy Report, the top 10 most wanted toys for Christmas among kids 5-16 are squarely focused on tech, with iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads topping the list. Read full article, Children Want Gadgets Not Toys for Christmas

This post originally appeared in New Media Literacies on October, 25, 2010. I recently attended Digital Hollywood, a digital media trade conference in Los Angeles for executives in the film, television, computer, music, and telecommunications fields. As a Ph.D. student in Communication at USC Annenberg, I attended four panels relevant to my research interests in children and media. These panels were organized around the following themes: immersive touchscreen media, mobile apps, crossmedia content reinvention, and one specifically on children in…

The Fred Rogers Center recently announced an exciting fellowship opportunity for early-career producers, animators, technologists, writers, artists, musicians, educators, and others, interested in creating exciting, high-quality media inspired by the legacy of Fred Rogers. Through the ECF program, the Fred Rogers Center acts as a catalyst for innovation in media- and technology-based work that advances early childhood development and learning. Download application and other information  

  President Obama is announcing our National STEM Video Game Challenge today at 3:15pm EST. Tune in to the LIVE Webcast. Inspired by the “Educate to Innovate” campaign, President Obama’s initiative to promote a renewed focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, the National STEM Video Game Challenge aims to motivate interest in STEM learning among America’s youth by tapping into students’ natural passions for playing and making video games. The first annual competition is being held by…

Reprinted from the Huffington Post, July 28, 2010, with permission from the author, Ellen Galinsky. A front-page story in the New York Times today (July 28) by David Leonhardt is provocatively titled “The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers”. In what is described as an “explosive” new study, Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues have shed new light on the importance of quality early childhood teaching. The researchers examined the life paths of almost 12,000 children who were part of…